President Director Of RMKE Calls Weakening Rupiah Profits Company

JAKARTA - President Director of PT RMK Energy Tbk. (RMKE) Vincent Saputra opened his voice regarding the impact of weakening the rupiah on the recent US dollar.

Vincent said that the RMKE business had two main motorbikes that brought in revenue, namely through coal exports and coal transportation services.

In terms of sales, he continued, around 75 percent of RMKE's coal production was exported abroad.

With the weakening of the rupiah, said Vincent, the company benefited because of the payments received in the form of dollars.

"With the falling coal price, it becomes a challenge for us, but we are quite helped at the exchange rate, because we are paid at USD. With the value of the rupiah conversion, the rupiah price will automatically weaken and we will benefit from that side. So our exports will quite benefit from the weakened rupiah," explained Vincent at a press conference in Jakarta, Thursday 18 April.

Meanwhile, in terms of coal prices, Vincent estimates that the price of this black gold commodity will range from 50 to 58 US dollars, especially the type of coal GAR 42, which is mostly produced by RMKE.

Moreover, he said, there is currently an increasingly heated conflict between Israel and Iran which can provide sentiment to coal commodity prices.

"It's possible that something like two years ago when there was a war in Ukraine, the price of GAR42 could be up to 130 dollars. Maybe it doesn't go up that much, but it's still very possible to increase at 60 to 70 US dollars, if geopolitical conditions are prolonged and have an effect on other commodities," Vincent explained.

Meanwhile, in 2024, RMKE targets an increase in coal sales volume by 3.5 million metric tons (MT) by 2024.

This target is quite aggressive considering the volume of coal sales in 2023 is only 2.4 million MT, down 5.4 percent yoy compared to the same period in 2022.

Vincent added, in addition to increasing sales volume, the company also targets the volume of barge cargo in 2024 of 9.9 million MT of coal. This number also increased compared to the achievement in 2023 which was recorded at 7.6 million MT of coal, slightly decreased by 3.2 percent yoy compared to to tofu n 2022.